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What Is?

Allo, nice people who keep swinging by here for some reason. Hope you’re all having a nice day and whatnot. Me… I’m kind of zoned out and distracted today. It’s a pretty big deal to me, so it’s not something that I’m quite content to discuss here in the open. But, to my amusement, I have friends who seem to think that I’m significantly more open here than on my private blog… it’s quite odd to me. 🙂

See, I’m sure those of you who don’t particularly know me have noticed that I’ve not named myself. I’ve not given you so much as an email address to contact me on, or pointed out any messenger names. I’ve listed a Twitter and a few other blogs, which can then give clues to other places I might be found, but it’s still not particularly identifying. Therefore, I feel comfortable giving my opinions and thoughts on things; I’m as anonymous as I can make myself without lying about who I am. I feel… safe after a fashion. Though obviously, I don’t abuse my little ‘safe’ zone to be nasty or cruel; we’ve seen how well that works with all the totally legit and appropriate defamation cases that have cropped up in recent years!

But that is definitely something I’ve wondered about over the years – why do people think that relative anonymity gives them the right to be a total dickwad (also, love that image to death)? Granted, I’ve got a pretty bad honesty compulsion going on; anonymity is about as far as I can personally about covering who I am and where specifically I live. *chuckles* So it makes sense that I have a very difficult time understanding people who lie about who they are, or abuse others for jollies because they think they won’t get caught. But then, I also never have been able to understand trying to change who you are to fit in; if anything, I opt to be a chameleon to be left blessedly alone. I suspect that’s an extension of the introvert versus extrovert debate, but there you go.

Wahey train of thought, you escaped me! I’m sure more could be said to make this more cogent and interesting, but meh…. it’s almost time for me to mosey on down the road. 😉

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Comments

What Is? — 4 Comments

Not sure about the chameleon to be an introvert – I do the same thing in terms of being a chameleon, but it’s more to invite social interaction than to disguise it. Because it’s more comfortable for others to strike up conversation or be amenable to a stranger talking to them if they feel that there are some points in common – I don’t feel that I’m any the less for it, in fact I regard it as almost good manners (almost like respecting local custom and culture) . I would not expect to behave the same way in a biker bar as in a decent restaurant, or vice versa, despite the fact that I enjoy both venues as part of who I am. I think it does have a certain amount of belief in one’s self to be true regardless of exterior trappings, there’s no need to fit a particular type in order to define a personality – the labels being discussed previously are not about exterior perceptions, but personality (of which there are many different facets).

I like how you can take my points and put the positive spin on them. *chuckles* I’ll agree with that too – I’m not so wedding to any image to not take into consideration the societal norms. And, per upbringing, I was strongly encouraged to keep that in mind, ’cause manners never go out of style!

PS I’ve no idea about people being complete dickwads when they revel in anonymity, since I don’t have that mindset either, but will point out that it’s behaviour much older than the internet. Mobs (where individuals don’t stand out from the crowd) have frequently had that type of gruesome; road rage is another form; vandalism has thrived for millenia…

Definitely valid, that. Though I suspect that the internet celeb factor probably feeds the current trends of trollosity to some degree – you’re anonymous, but you have an audience sort of thing. It’ll be interesting to look back on these times 20, 30 years down the road!